Reflections from Reykjavik and the Wellbeing Economy Forum

P4NE’s Director, Jo Swinson, shares her personal takeaways from the Wellbeing Economy Forum in Iceland…

Place 

“Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up” – Halla Tomasdottir 

The practical optimism of these words from Iceland’s President Halla Tomasdottir to the Wellbeing Economy Forum in Reykjavik last week seemed fitting for a conference discussing ambitious alternative futures. Senior government officials, leaders from international organisations, academics, civil society representatives and dozens of young advocates all gathered amidst the wild beauty of Iceland.

The purpose was to discuss changing the very fabric of our economic system, away from the narrow goals of more profit and GDP and towards the wellbeing of people and planet now and for the future. The setting – on the edge of the Arctic Circle – poignantly mirrored the position wellbeing economics currently occupies in mainstream economic debate. Attractive and picturesque – yet also far away and somewhat other-worldly: “could we really live there?” 

Even the bold architectural gem of the dockside Harpa conference centre conveyed a sense of vulnerability. Just a mile or so along the coast the sea wall fortifications are substantial. Icelanders are no strangers to harsh conditions. Summer is upon them, yet while I was there it also snowed. I barely saw the dark, and while revelling in the long light spring days, I shuddered to think of the deep December permagloom. And the very ground underfoot, the black porous rocks on the beach, and the horizon of pointed peaks combine to remind you that the whole place is a nest of volcanoes, biding their time before unleashing destruction.  

In such a place, it feels palpable how much we depend on each other and on nature, and how we can only survive if we nurture that interdependence.

In such a place, it feels palpable how much we depend on each other and on nature, and how we can only survive if we nurture that interdependence. Everywhere I went, I saw storytelling binding people and place together. Abundant art, rooted in history and the land. The attention-grabbing pump room of a geothermal power plant supplying a whole neighbourhood with clean, affordable, constantly-renewed power. The nostalgic sea rock ‘Ufsaklettur’, climbed by children over the generations, moved inland and put on forever display when sea fortifications replaced the beach of the past. Sculptures and anecdote boards about old churches, famous residents, past architecture, and the oldest tree in Reykjavik – a majestic Swedish whitebeam now standing proudly in a city square. This is a community that responded to the tragic killing of Bryndís Klara, a 17 year old girl who was fatally stabbed last year, by launching a campaign for acts of love. As their President pointed out, the Latin root that gave us the word courage also gave us coeur – French for heart. Love and courage go hand in hand, and we need more of both to meet these times. 

Power

In this world where crises seem to multiply as if in the Sorceror’s Apprentice, a new kind of economics is necessary. Iceland is one of the countries that has been leading the way, as a co-founder of the Wellbeing Economy Governments group. 

Achieving this is full of challenges, as Benedikt Arnason from the Iceland PM’s office pointed out. The wellbeing approach has gained traction within governments, to be sure, but the pace of adoption is slow. We are awash with alternative indicators, but they are not yet standardised, there are too many data gaps, and political interest in these does not yet come close to the attention given to GDP. Perhaps that is partly due to the lack of simple wellbeing goals. We know on climate that success is limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, but analysing the wellbeing of people and nature is messier, and not adequately summed up in one number. Finally, it takes time: former PM Katrin Jakobsdottir pioneered the wellbeing economics approach over her 6 years in office, yet the task of fully integrating the agenda into Budget decision-making processes is ongoing. 

In this world where crises seem to multiply as if in the Sorceror’s Apprentice, a new kind of economics is necessary. Iceland is one of the countries that has been leading the way, as a co-founder of the Wellbeing Economy Governments group. 

Wellbeing economics can sometimes sound abstract and removed from people’s everyday challenges, but the damage from the current economic system is very real. Welsh government representative Lloyd Harris highlighted how in Wales more than 1 in 3 people earn less than the real living wage. When people work hard and still can’t make ends meet, society is left to pick up the pieces. Taxes are, in effect, subsidising large, profitable companies who prioritise shareholder dividends over paying their staff enough to live on.  

Keynote speaker Kate Raworth shared the idea of k(new) economics: that what we need isn’t actually new. Instead we can draw deeply on ancient and indigenous ways of understanding the world, which centre our innate interdependence – some still hold these truths, while others need to relearn. She also reminded us that our current economic system is divisive: the richest 1% hold almost 50% of the world’s wealth.  

I enjoyed former Italian government minister Lorenzo Fioramonti’s quip that we’re less divided than we are led to believe: “everyone is scared of the future, even the rich – they’re all preppers”. 

Professor Marc Fleurbaey cited the current factors of growth as competition and innovation, reflecting that while both can be positive, they also have a darker side. Innovation is organised to cater to the needs of the rich, and competition favours the least scrupulous who externalise their costs. He made the case that we need to manage innovation differently, in service of the common good. 

People 

Placing people at the heart of decision-making would refocus priorities. One of the young advocates, medical student Pauline Hasterteufel pointed out that “in the past health has only been a means to an end for the economy”. It’s an interesting provocation, because there is a divergence between people’s own views and government action. This reminded me of the success of the previous Labour government initiative of IAPT (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies), which rapidly expanded access to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for people suffering from anxiety and depression. The programme was based in large part on research by Prof Richard Layard, who co-founded the All Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing Economics with me back in 2009. It was hugely successful, yet securing the funding was only really possible by appealing to the economic case for getting people with depression or anxiety back into work. Surely a civilised society would value this kind of programme for reducing misery and improving quality of life?  

Existing economics conceives of us as a mass of individuals, and ignores or dismisses the interdependencies and complexities of our mutual relationships and how we provide for our needs, especially when we do so collectively, or outside traditional market structures.

Existing economics conceives of us as a mass of individuals, and ignores or dismisses the interdependencies and complexities of our mutual relationships and how we provide for our needs, especially when we do so collectively, or outside traditional market structures. This conceptualised separation or atomisation was crystallised when Gabriela Ramos, Associate Director General of UNESCO, spoke powerfully about the way we judge schools. She pointed out how metrics are based overwhelmingly on how well pupils are prepared to compete individually, rather than the development of their skills to work collaboratively, or the empathy to form and strengthen relationships. With my 11 year old son sitting the UK school standardised tests this month, this point really hit home – as a parent, the academic achievements of the school, while important, can only ever paint a very narrow picture of how his school is preparing him and his classmates for the next part of their formal education and for life beyond that. 

30% of Europeans feel lonely every day was the shocking fact that stuck with me from Katarina Ivankovic Knezeric’s presentation. Romina Boarini gave us the devastating statistic that the health risks of of ‘long loneliness’ are on a par with smoking 15 cigarettes a day. This growing problem spans the generations, with trends showing people now less likely to see friends every day compared to a couple of decades ago, and young people showing the biggest decline in this regular socialising. 

A couple of reflections on the concept of time really caught my mind. Lloyd Harris reflected on how we tend to write strategies and documents in terms of years and decades, but our work in practice tends to focus on what happens in days and months, driven by the cycles of budgets and elections. Emma Rawson-Te Patu encouraged us to learn from Maori practice “to see time differently, so we can behave better towards one another… in Maori culture 99% of our time is spent in relationship, which means the tasks get done immeasurably faster.” So much of the philanthropic world is obsessed with short-term KPI metrics, and 3 years is considered a long grant term. Yet we are missing a trick by wanting to support only the final mile of change, once the hard yards have been put in over years – because who is going to resource that long-term work if not the (potentially) patient capital of philanthropy funds? 

Hope 

It’s natural in the current geopolitical climate to feel dismayed and disoriented, but important not to get stuck in doom and despair. Co-founder of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, Stewart Wallis, reminded us that in the shifts to Keynsianism and then neoliberalism “we changed our economic system twice in the twentieth century, and we can do it again”. 

Mika Salminen from the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare shared how focusing on the holistic view has helped Finland to the highest life satisfaction in the world. Though the video he showed prompted the person next to me to remark, “can you imagine the UK Work & Pensions department producing a video like that?” There does seem to be a big gulf in the Overton window between countries, but we can take heart from trailblazers and then highlight their lead as proof that another way of thinking about economic and social problems is possible.  

…we can take heart from trailblazers and then highlight their lead as proof that another way of thinking about economic and social problems is possible

Recent Commonwealth Secretary General Baroness Patricia Scotland sounded a note of optimism too: “the threats we’re facing now are common, global threats, so we are moving from competition to collaboration”. 

Finally, the concept of hope with “its sleeves rolled up” is encapsulated in the story of the day Iceland ran out of hot dogs. This year marks 50 years since the women of Iceland collectively went on strike, banding together in solidarity to make visible their true contribution to society: the domestic and emotional labour which is so under-valued by traditional economics. As dads reached to feed their hungry children what they knew how to cook, the shops sold out of hot dogs. And so a major shift in Iceland’s path was forced, towards the pro-equality society it is famous for being today. 

A shift towards an economy prioritising wellbeing for everyone is a bigger challenge even than achieving gender equality, but the same can-do spirit and collective determination will serve us well in its pursuit.